The Dunes at Port Hughes is back on the market

ALMOST a year after taking over ownership of The Dunes housing estate at Port Hughes, Rural Bank has launched a marketing campaign targeting inner city buyers.

ALMOST a year after taking over ownership of The Dunes housing estate at Port Hughes, Rural Bank has launched a marketing campaign targeting inner city buyers.

Locals have led a resurgence in sales at the Yorke Peninsula development, according to Rural Bank chief executive Paul Hutchinson, with construction of the estate's 50th home recently commencing.

Last week a promotional event in Rundle Mall - The Dunes in the City - signalled a new push to attract Adelaide buyers to the coastal precinct.

"The inquiry that has been generated in the first two weeks of January has been the most substantial that we've seen since we took control of the development and we're hopeful, and have a degree of confidence, that we'll see further sales from the summer period," he said.

Mr Hutchinson said the level of community support for The Dunes had inspired discussions about expanding the bank's presence in the region.

"The community up there has been very much behind Rural Bank's endeavours to underpin the project and that actually is now emerging in some formative conversations about potentially setting up a community bank in the region," he said.

"Bendigo has a very substantial national footprint of community banks. There is not one in that Copper Coast region and so I think the initiative that's been brought to bear by Rural Bank, by the council and the association has led to formative conversations about the appetite of the community to have a bank like that."

Rural Bank, a subsidiary of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, was owed more than $8 million when The Dunes project fell into the hands of receivers in 2012.

Early last year, it decided to take the residential component of the project onto its own balance sheet after an unsuccessful attempt to sell the undeveloped land.

"The economics of leaving it in that status (receivership) versus taking it onto our balance sheet were clearly understood," Mr Hutchinson said.

"We felt that the upside from a relative point of view was that an asset being marketed as a going concern, and one that has a backer that's a strong one is going to yield a better outcome."

The Greg Norman-designed, nine-hole golf course at The Dunes was gifted by the bank to the Copper Coast Council in return for sponsorship of the Copperclub Golf and Community Association - an independent group that was established to operate the golf course operations.

The association has lifted membership from 90 to 130, undertaken significant infrastructure upgrades and plantings, and recently appointed Victorian professional Greg Dowling.

He will lead a range of new activities and events at the course, including coaching and junior clinics.